Marketing Strategy and Product Branding for SMEs

Experts Biography

Abdul Kareem Sulaiman

Abdul Kareem, BSc., M.A., BL., Cert-in-Teaching (Hr. Edn.), DIBF, ACTA has more than 32 years of experience in the corporate as well as in the academic arena.
He initially served one of the world’s largest power plant equipment manufacturing organisation. His experience in the fi

Course Description

The crux of business success lies in marketing. Marketing helps create awareness in the eyes of the public about a company’s products/services, increase sales, build brand reputation, and foster an environment in the market for healthy competition.

A marketing strategy takes a comprehensive view of all activities related to selling a product or service and helps ensure that these activities support each other. It helps to determine the right price for a company’s products/services, establishes effective distributive channels, and assists in effective communication to the outside world, in addition to creating an organizational environment in which the various units or departments work together to achieve common goals.

Branding is especially important for SMEs as it influences people’s perceptions of the company’s quality of customer service, image, advertising, and logo. When these parts of the business are working well, the overall brand tends to be healthy. A good brand helps improve recognition, creates trust, reinforces advertisements, builds value, generates new customers, and, last but not least, inspires employees.

Today, many SMEs have great products and provide excellent customer service, although most do not know how to develop appropriate marketing and branding strategies to keep the business afloat. This self-e-learning course was developed by the APO with the sole aim of helping small businesses develop the ability to market their products and services effectively.

Course Instructions

– There are seven modules in this course. Please start with Module 1 and complete each module in order.

– The recommended timeline to complete each module is:

Days 1–2: Module 1 + Quiz 1

Days 3–4: Module 2 + Quiz 2

Days 5–6: Module 3 + Quiz 3

Days 7–8: Module 4 + Quiz 4

Days 9–10: Module 5 + Quiz 5

Days 11–12: Module 6 + Quiz 6

Days 13–14: Module 7 + Quiz 7

Day 15: Final exam

– To confirm your understanding, quizzes are provided in each module. Please answer the questions and check your score for self-evaluation. Please note that the quiz scores are not related to the final exam results.

– It is recommended that you proceed to the next module only after satisfactory completion of the preceding module.

– After completing all modules, each participant should take the final exam. Remember that you are only allowed to take the final exam once. Please ensure that you have thoroughly understood all modules before taking the final exam.

– After completion of the course, the APO will provide e-certificates to successful participants from APO member countries who pass the final exam (minimum passing score is 70% or 70 points).

Course Objectives

This module aims to help SMEs in developing their marketing strategies and product branding strategies. The self-learning e-course modules are designed to enable participants to:

a. Gain perspective on developing new products and services;

b. Describe and explain product development strategies and the stages of product development and product lifecycles;